Grant assists with home repairs

MIDLAND

Aberdeen woman to have new roof installed

Monica Toth was putting money away to reroof her house when her furnace died in October, leaving her to choose between shelter and a new heating system.

"Holy smokes, I knew I needed a roof. I didn't expect my furnace to go out," she said about her house built by Hub Area Habitat for Humanity 13 years ago.

Toth, a certified nursing assistant with home health and hospice through Avera St. Luke's, depended on a small heater throughout the winter and said she was thankful for the mild weather because, despite a higher electric bill, the heater worked just fine.

But she recently received a $5,000 grant from Homes Are Possible Inc., an Aberdeen-based organization. Of that, $2,500 went to replace her furnace, and today, the rest will be used to reroof her house. Volunteers are doing the work.

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The reroofing marks the first time Homes Are Possible Inc. and A Brush With Kindness, a Habitat for Humanity program, have worked together. The grant from Homes Are Possible Inc. funded the shingles, and A Brush With Kindness gathered the volunteers, who will arrive around 8:30 a.m. today and work into the afternoon.

The materials will cost between $2,200 and $2,400, but if the organizations had had to pay an independent contractor, the bill would have come to between $1,000 and $2,000 more, said Fred Rist, chairman of A Brush With Kindness construction committee.

HAPI helps low- and middle-income homeowners stay in their homes by providing $5,000 in rehabilitation grants to those who qualify based on income.

A Brush With Kindness maintains the exterior of homes for low-income owners when age, disability and family circumstances prevent them from doing the necessary repairs, according to the Habitat for Humanity website. Toth's is the second house A Brush With Kindness has worked on since the program started in the fall, Rist said.

Hub Area Habitat for Humanity contacted Homes Are Possible Inc. for help on Toth's house, beginning a partnership both organizations said they hope to continue.

"This is the first project that I'm aware of that we've worked together on," said Colleen Jones, housing assistant at HAPI. "It's a real benefit for both of us. We can get a lot more done, and it benefits the client."

Rist also said he would be willing to work with Habitat again if a situation similar to Toth's arose.

And both organizations are looking to help with more houses. Since A Brush With Kindness began last fall, only about four inquiries have come in, Rist said. He said that the organization hopes to receive more.

"If we've got elderly or people that are physically unable or don't have the money to do the work on their house, we want them to contact us," Rist said.

An Aberdeen native, Toth has been in contact with Hub Area Habitat for Humanity for more than a decade. Ward Drive has 10 Habitat homes, and hers was the second Habitat house built on the street. She has lived there since she helped build it for herself and her two children 13 years ago. Since then, she said, she tries to help with another house on the block at least one Saturday a month.

Now the volunteers are coming to her. Her daughter and son, now grown, might be among the volunteers at today's reroofing, too.